Local playwright’s work will debut as short film in First Thursday Film Festival

By Rich Lopez jrlopez@mrt.com

Updated 12:26 am, Monday, April 3, 2017

Photo: James Durbin

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Photo: James Durbin

Local playwright’s work will debut as short film in First Thursday Film Festival

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

After more than 50 years in academia, Tom Parks decided to focus on writing for the stage. The former professor and associate dean of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin had his one-act play “Objects in Mirror” produced into a staged reading in 2014. Now, his writing has been transformed into a short film that he partially directed.

The 15-minute short “An Atheist's Prayer” will screen this week as part of the First Thursday Film Festival, which focuses on local talent. It’s led by screenwriter David Bryant Perkins, who is scouting locations in Midland for his screenplay “The Man Who Beat Mark Spitz” about swimmer Doug Russell, a former Midlander.

IF YOU GO:

First Thursday Film Festival by the Permian Basin Film Society, 6 p.m. today at Wall Street Lofts, 100 N. Main St. Free. firstthursdaysfilmfestival.com

Parks talked about turning work for the stage into a film, finding the film’s star and how it was to see his words come to life on-screen rather than onstage.

MRT: Firstly, what is your story about?

Parks: The film is basically a plaintive cry for world peace, but it is far from being preachy, hand-wringing or religious. I retired from UTPB a couple of years back after 52 years in education, and there’s still enough teacher left in me to provoke or promote an idea or seek a sense of truth, and I’ll try just about anything to do it, including humor or religion or controversy.

MRT: How was it to see your work come to life in this way?

Parks: Unlike any other kind of writing, this one depends almost solely on the actor. I have developed a downright awe of actors. Over several weeks of filming, I saw my play emerge as a short movie – a tiny bit at a time, strictly on the back of the actor involved. In that process, I see now the kind of high art acting can be, whether for the stage or movies.

MRT: Mary Lou Cassidy was your film’s star. She’s probably most famous locally for her work in Summer Mummers and as director of the Maverick Players. How did you connect with her?

Parks: Once I finished the script, I began looking around for the right person for the movie. It’s a tough role, in that it features a woman representing all of mankind as she takes on the reigning gods who currently represent 70 percent of the world’s populations of worshipers. The allegory is a tough one to deliver. Over the past decade or so, I had seen Mary Lou Cassidy in numerous roles and knew that, if anybody could handle it, she could. So, out of the blue, I sent her a script and a letter begging her to consider it, and she did.

MRT: Were there any changes or challenges in turning your stage play into a short film?

Parks: In so many ways for the writer, the two genres are alike in their requirements: character development, plotting, pacing, motivation, conflict, but then the differences emerge.

MRT: How do you mean?

Parks: For example, a movie can feature an extreme close-up of an actress, who gives a subtle smile or wink that says more than 10 pages of stage dialogue. At the same time, a line well-delivered by an actor onstage can generate a wave of human warmth or awe or fear that sweeps over the entire audience – something very difficult to do with the coldness of the camera.

MRT: Those same concerns were there even with Cassidy as your only actor?

Parks: Fortunately for me, the transition from stage play to movie featured a single larger-than-life character, and I had a seasoned actress whose timing was impeccable and who embraced the camera and its subtleties from the first.

MRT: How much were you behind the camera?

Parks: Only minimally. I had Mary Lou, an experienced actress, and Roger Coughlin of AV Workshop behind the camera, and both were veterans in their roles. So together we got through it with only a few bumps along the way.

MRT: How did you connect with the First Thursday Film Festival?

Parks: Perkins, was in Midland earlier this year to scout locations, and he encouraged me to participate in the festival here, which he and his daughter Amanda have founded. That led to his invitation to show the film at Thursday’s session.